A mountain of confidence
Speaking on the theme Power of YES at Speaker Slam® in Toronto on Sep 17, 2024, Heather Di Santo delivered “A mountain of confidence”.
Transcript
I can do this dead woman's pass what a terrifying name for a mountain isn't it over 13,000 feet above sea level I was in awe of what I had just accomplished I couldn't believe that I was standing where I was and my day was only half over I can do hard things one step at a time I can and I will be brave have you ever seen the image Big Blue Sky there's a mountain at the top of the mountain there's a sign and it has the word goal on it halfway up there's these two characters carrying this humongous Boulder and it has the word
self-doubt on it the caption going up from one of them says wouldn't it be easier if we put this down self-doubt is a triy key thing for me it sits up here all the time you wouldn't think it I'm standing up here on stage right now but it does if you were in my mind you'd be exhausted self-doubt lives with friends like fear anxiety low self-esteem procrastination people pleasing anybody feel me here early last year A friend of mine shared her dream her bucket list item to hike the Inca Trail to matchu Picchu in that moment I had no clue what this woman was talking
about the few months later I see on Facebook a friend posts private hike to the Inca Trail I take a screenshot I send it to my friend literally seconds later she writes back that's awesome you're coming with me right I froze in that moment everything inside me started to panic my stomach summersaults buzzing from head to toe there is no way I can do this all of the fears started coming all of the self-doubt of whether I could even actually get the top of this matchu Picchu and by the way you don't actually climb matchu Picchu the other things that came to mind were I'm
a wife I'm a mom I'm a daughter I'm a business owner all these yes responsibilities that I'm very grateful to have there was no way life could go on without me when I go on this trip not to mention the things like fear of heights having no idea what altitude would do for me and of course the money but all of those feelings that I had inside of me were signs that I knew that this was the right thing for me to do I was entering into my 50th year and I knew with certainty that I wanted to show my two boys that I could
be strong capable and do hard things about a month before we were about to leave when the anxiety really set in the self-doubt and I really really realized what I had said yes to I decided I needed to create a mantra something that would help me get through the hard times that inevitably I knew that I was going to have and it became I can do hard things one step at a time I can and I will be brave and so make sure that I had this I decided to run up to my room went on canva found some random picture of matchup Pichu and
created an image put it on my Apple watch so that it would be handy for me and it turns out by saying yes to this great opportunity it has shifted my perspective my goals and I know and it reminded me that I can do absolutely anything that I put my mind to so this past may I am very proud to share that I accomplished and witnessed my beautiful friend Leah get to matchu Picchu and get my very own picture of the extraordinary Masterpiece that is matchu Picchu I did it with 11 other extraordinary women where we we were self-doubt all the time but we really
supported each other wholeheartedly and got us through we put those Boulders down and got to our goal and so by having that tremendous experience it literally got me here tonight a month after I got back I saw a post from speaker slam one spot left for the power of yes and without a doubt because I was feeling Unstoppable confident I said yes and that is my spot and I can guarantee I would not be standing on this stage had it not been for that trip everybody in this room can do hard things everything happens for a reason and if you stick with me long enough
in this midlife journey of mine you will get to know the words you can't make this up it will become a regular part of your vocabulary we can all do hard things one step at a time and we when we Empower ourselves to say yes to bravery and no to the monkey mind that's up here we can do amazing things just like me and I even got the tattoo to prove it
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.